


Chairs on the ceiling

by Hasuruzaf



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 04:02:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30066366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hasuruzaf/pseuds/Hasuruzaf
Summary: Reggie is bored but there are chairs on the ceiling
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Kudos: 22





	Chairs on the ceiling

Reggie was admiring the ceiling, half lying on their old couch, wondering once again why or how someone did put halves of chairs up there. Perhaps some silly trend of those past two decades they missed. The future-present was weird. It made him laugh but no one paid attention because they were not funny and too busy being thoughtful about important stuff. Or not.

“Alex ?” said Luke, like five millions years after he begun to scribble on his songbook. 

“Yeah ?” replied the brooding man, on the upper level of the garage. Seriously, Reggie was getting so bored he begun to count the number of time Alex communicated by one word syllable. 17 so far. Or 18. Or maybe more. Ok, he didn’t really kept count because anything was more interesting than his two bestfriends at the moment. Like the chairs. Nice chairs they were, such a shame they had to be cut in halves and third for some reason. 

“Do you talk to Willie these days ?” Luke asked, not looking up from his notebook. Weird, the guy was not really shy when it came to address the elephant in the room. The pinkish elephant in the room. 

Reggie heard Alex bonk his head on the ceiling or another woody thing. On purpose or not, he was not sure.

It had the effect of finally making Flynn raise her eyes up from the book she was reading from the other side of the couch Reggie was merging with. Damn, he had tried everything to make her notice his presence for twenty minutes straight but in vain. He should have known that sound was the key. 

He was beginning to worry that maybe his friend got concussion or something since no sound were made after that. He remembered that they were ghost, and thus, not prone to concussion when Alex talked again. 

“Why do you ask ?” came his reply

Ok, so definitely on purpose. Alex was funny. Reggie grabbed some drumstick lying not too far from his head to occupy his restless hands. 

Luke, who was a bit too interested in his scribbling gibberish – Reggie didn’t need to be next to him to know that he was not writing anything made of actual letters – was also wriggling a bit too much in his seat before he replied, “I need him for something”. The cough that came after was almost cute. 

Flynn head snapped again when another “bump” was heard from upstairs. Somehow, Reggie didn’t think this one was intentional. For some reason, it made sense to him that Alex wouldn’t even notice when he would made himself physically strong enough to interact with objects. A dense man. A dense ghost.

Reggie would have almost rolled his eyes at the whole situation, because he was still a bit put out that he was left to play on his own for at least two weeks now. Well, maybe it was more two hours. Or maybe less. But it really felt like two weeks. At the very least. Reggie decided to try and put everyone out of their misery, and mostly his own because it was not funny, at all. He had been patient enough. 

He got up from the couch, twirled on himself and pointed at Alex, who had one hand on his forehead, with one of the drumstick “You, get down here”. He didn’t wait until Alex could glare in incomprehension before pointing his other drumstick to Luke “You, don’t move”. The guy still straightened in his armchair. Well, that was not a lot of moving so he was going to let that slide. 

Once Alex that looked a bit puzzled, but still with a frown between in crease because why not, poofed next to Reggie that was not far from the piano that was not far from Luke. Gosh, nothing was far from anything in this garage. They really needed to reclaim some of those copyrights from Bobby’s music and get a real place. Even if they didn’t have proper body, it still felt a bit cramped-up, especially if one of them who-was-a-bit-too-tall if you asked Reggie, kept bumping into things apparently. 

“What ?!” came the frustrated voice of Alex that just shrugged his shoulders. 

Right ! 

“Talk” he said, pointed both end of the two drumsticks towards each of the boys 

Alex looked at the floor.

Luke, who begun to freak him out acting shier than ever, looked at him for half a second before looking back at his notebook and melting in his seat once again.

Reggie tried hard not to sigh. He still did, but at least he tried not to.

“So let’s begin with the most obvious one before coming back to you creepy guy” he said putting his nose in Luke’s direction.

Alex putted his hand in his pockets when Reggie sight came back to him and started to tap the ground with the tip of his shoes. 

Flynn head snapped right back towards them. 

“Look at what your moody self is doing to poor Flynn !” Reggie said, pointing very dramatically towards said girl. “If we’re beginning to scare Julie’s relatives again, she’s really going to make us go away for real” he didn’t actually think so, and Flynn knew about them, but he got why it still would be scary to hear sound without seeing the source of it. “So. What happened ? Did you break his skate or something ?”

Alex nicely didn’t pretend he didn’t know who he was talking about or that he wasn’t the reason why he was the saddest form of a hurt puppy Reggie had ever seen, dead or alive. But he still had the audacity to look at Reggie like he was stupid. Or not funny. Or a mix of the two, which was greatly insulting because Reggie was the funniest of them all and really, he begun to think he was in the top 3 best minds of their group lately. 

Perhaps because Reggie glare was more intimidating than he thought it was Alex finally said “We ..” 

Reggie counted slowly in his head. Patience was, is and always will be a virtue he reminded himself. 

“We went to see a movie” 

“Without me ?!” Reggie couldn’t help but respond to that betrayal, totally forgetting why he asked for this meeting in the first place. He loved movies! He strangely loved them even more since he was dead. He looked at Luke that finally seemed to be interested in something else than his stupid book. Luke made the big eyes thing that he does a lot when he talks to Reggie. What a strange habit he had. 

“Why didn’t you invite me ?!” Life was… well death was so unfair ! 

Luke grabbed his right arm, his eyes going ever more out of the places they were supposed to rest in. 

“What ?!” 

Luke looked at him two or three seconds too long for someone who didn’t tell a word and got up, letting Reggie’s arm go. He made the three steps or so that separated him from Alex who looked a bit done with the whole situation, as if Reggie wasn’t the only one allowed to be done with their egoïstic ass. They went to the movies without him !

“What happened?” Luke asked, totally disregarding the fact that Reggie never was invited to the theatre. 

Alex focused his sight back on the ground before continuing the story of how he betrayed his best friend “We went to see a movie at his place” 

Better and better, he wasn’t even invited to a friend place. He was an outcast to his own group. Nice. Why would Willie only invite Alex to see a movie. It wasn’t like Reggie was a bad friend. Plus he enjoyed movies, unlike Alex who kept talking over every little detail he didn’t enjoy. 

“And it was nice, we were cuddling and all” 

Well, Reggie could cuddle too ! Well, perhaps not his friends. He would if they needed it, but it would mostly be something he did, mostly alone, with a lov- ….oh. 

“Ooooooh ! I get it. You’re forgiven!” he said tucking the two drumsticks under his armpit to make a double thumbs up toward his friends. 

Aside from a pause from Alex story, the two of them didn’t acknowledge Reggie kind gesture. 

“but I said that one of the song was dumb and he was like totally upset over it and it made me upset because I didn’t intended to make him upset in the first place, just to laugh it off with him but then” at this point, Alex was pacing in the room, a habit they saw a lot whenever the guy was thinking since he died and oh boy, did he made a lot of thinking. Reggie was pretty sure the ground of the garage sank lower from where it was before they jumped to the future. He got back to the conversation somewhere along the lines of “and believe me when I said that was not that cute and then he said he found Oasis rubbish” 

“But-“

“No he actually said rubbish !” he insisted, a finger in the air, when Luke tried to probably calm him down

“Willie, the guy that only talks in slang that I don’t understand 95% of the time, and I actually love that about him for some reasons, said Oasis was rubbish. R U B B I S H” he spelled “and then…” and then Alex calmed down and seemed a bit sad. 

Luke put a hand on Alex’s arm. So Reggie did the same on the other hand. That got him two looks. He smiled. 

Alex snorted and seemed to relax a bit. 

“Alex” Luke begun 

“I know, I know” 

“Music is-”

“I know Alex. I know. I shouldn’t have laughed at that stupi… that music he liked so much. I don’t actually hate it actually. It was a bit cheesy, but he liked it so much, and he smiled so broadly humming the tune, I just wanted to tease him. Just to get his attention so he could look at me like he looked at the movie. And then I didn’t handle his response well, and it escalated quickly.” 

Reggie had no idea what it meant but Reggie did not understand a lot of expressions, mostly these days. “Did you tell him that ?”

“No” said Alex, looking at the ceiling. Or the chairs. Or the chairs and the ceiling. 

“Why ?” asked Reggie 

Alex closed his eyes and took a bit long to exhale his answer “because I poofed out here as soon as I didn’t know what to answer to Oasis is rubbish.”

“Well that’s stupid” 

Both Alex and Luke looked at him not kindly at all. 

“I don’t like Oasis either and you don’t care” he said, because really, Alex was stupid. 

It seemed like Alex was going to answer before having the look on his face that said he was back to thinking again. After a moment or so, he looked at Luke and said 

“Oh no. This is so embarrassing. How am I ever going to be able to show my face before him ? Oh no no no !” 

Luke put a hand on his own nape and said, somewhat embarrassed “well, maybe we can go to his place so you can say sorry. What about right now ?” he said as he clapped his hands together.

“Why do you want to see him ?” asked Reggie, still confused about that whole new Luke-is-shy thing he was witnessing for the first time

“I need to ask him something” he said “and !” he added directing his arms towards the couch where Alex was face down, not even bothering that his feet where going trough Flynn that seemed to be a bit uncomfortable “We need big guy here to say sorry to his boyfriend” 

“We’re not boyfriends” came the muffled voice of Alex as Flynn moved to another spot in the garage to sit down without ghost feet touching her. 

“You’re not ?!” asked Reggie 

“Well, we need to go either way” said Luke. “Come on Alex, I know Willie, maybe not as much as you do but we both know that he’ll never be angry if you so much as say sorry.”

“I know that too” said Reggie, proudly, his hand up

“Hmpf”

“Come on dude ! What if” Alex searched for an idea apparently “What if we sang that song you teased him about huh ?! It would be a nice way of showing you’re sorry without looking like the dumb boy you are !”

No answer came from the ghost whale on the couch. 

Alex knew as much as Reggie did that they won. “Come on commeeeee on ! It would be easier and please him so much. Plus he would be really happy that his not-boyfriend sang him a song he really likes” 

Alex finally sat down, still looking gloomy “Ok, why not” 

“Fantastic ! So we rehearse and we go to Will’s !”

“I’m going to search for Julie” said Reggie, suddenly very happy that there were doing some kind of plan.

“No!” snapped back Luke 

That got him attention from the two boys.

“No, I mean it’s better if it’s Alex singing. We don’t need to bother Julie for that.” 

“Did you fight with Julie ?” 

“No Alex, why would I fight with Julie” he replied, like he was stupid. Which he was to be honest. 

“Did you fight with Willie ?” asked Reggie, a question that seemed to interest Alex as well. 

“What ? No guys I didn’t. I just need to, oh whatever, I just need some advice from him” said Luke, throwing his arms in the air.

What kind of advice could Willie give to Luke that the band couldn’t ? Perhaps some advice about how to turn electric device on from afar! That was a skill that must be fun to master! Not that useful, but fun! Or did Luke want to learn skateboard ? The guy was the less balanced person he ever met, he kept falling on stage when they were alive. Maybe Reggie should learn some new skills on his own too. 

Alex must have asked the question because Luke said, after sighing, “fashion advice” 

“What ?”

“What ?!” 

“It’s just… I just like the way he dresses up, it doesn’t feel too out of reach from when we come from but not too simple either. I just really like it and I would like to dress up well for Friday” 

Alex took some time before he finally looked like he understood and smiled.

Reggie didn’t smile as he didn’t understood what was the connection between dressing well and Friday. He was pretty sure they weren’t due for a gig this Friday. Friday was four days monday. Friday was not a pretty name for a day but whatever. Friday there was this surprise birthday party they were throwing for Julie. They had birthday parties before and Luke never asked for fashion advice. Not from Willie nor anyone as far as Reggie knew. What was so different about Julie’s birthday, he didn’t know.

“You want to be pretty” said Alex now, a broader smile on his face now and a teasing tone in his voice.

Reggie wanted to be pretty too. And he was. 

“For J U L I E” he spelled, once again. 

Oh ! Right ! Julie was the reason why !

Luke got really, really red on the ears. 

“Whatever, what’s the song we need to rehearse ?” he said as he busied himself with his guitar 

“Ok but why do you not ask us for fashion advice ?” 

Reggie almost felt sorry for Alex, but the guy couldn’t even dress himself so, yeah, of course Luke didn’t come to him. The real question was why he didn’t come to Reggie !

“Well” said Alex as he scratched his cheek 

Reggie had to give Luke the fact that his eyes resisted the urge to look down at where they both knew his pants were tucked inside his horrible socks. Reggie, was not that hypocrite. 

“This” he pointed at said socks with one of the drumstick “is horrible and should be burnt” 

Alex actually scoffed 

“Give me back my drumstick mister corny pants, shirts and everything” he said as he snatched his drumstick from Reggie’s hand.

Reggie was so shocked he actually put his hand where his heart was once.

“I’m not corny ! I’m classy !” 

“Yeah whatever” 

“Luke, tell him I’m not corny !” he was not corny.

“He’s not corny” said Luke who was very interested by his strings. 

“Thank you!” he said going to his bass, looking at Alex knowing he won that argument because Luke said so.

Alex rolled his eyes and went to his drums.

“So. What are we playing to serenade Willie back to your not well dressed ass?” Reggie asked, relishing in his victory. 

“It’s a song called Breaking Free” he sighed 

“Oh nice !” said Luke, genuinely happy “we watched High School Musical last month with Julie ! She told me the second was the best tho.” 

Excellent. Everyone was watching movies and learning expressions without him. What he needed was someone to watch movies with. Or some friends with no not-girlfriend and not-boyfriend. 

Ah, whatever. Death was fun, there were chairs on the ceiling, he thought, as they procedeed to make Flynn jump from her chair when they played the first notes of breaking free.

Death was definitely fun.

**Author's Note:**

> So. I watched jatp friday. I watched it for the second time saturday. It is now monday and despite my every effort, my brain can't seem to catch a break from thinking about every moments of that show. So maybe, like dreams, I need to write a bit too much about it to forget it. Or not.  
> Or maybe I just wrote this whole mess just because I needed to rant about Alex poor wardrobe choices and the fact that we should make a nice bonefire to toss his socks into.  
> Maybe.  
> I'm sorry (not really) for the cheesiness of the whole thing.  
> Hope you enjoyed anyway !


End file.
